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I believe they knew that if they said it was a great content creation tool the blogosphere would have scoffed at them. So they led with content consumption and then during the 9 months it was on the market, they watched closely at what people did with the iPad. Not-to-their surprise, people actually did use it for productivity. Pages was Apples highest grossing app in its App Store. When all types of apps for medical, education, and sales and enterprise came out, people started using the iPad as a computing tool, not just a consumption device. These examples were prominent in the videos Steve showed at the iPad 2 launch.

You will also notice that this time, Steve never sat down in that chair. He stood the entire time. This is another important visual cue, albeit probably symbolic, and it seemed to signal a change in the iPad's positioning. By not sitting in the chair, I believe Jobs was suggesting that the iPad should now also be considered a content creation device and a serious tool for business productivity. In the original iPad launch, he emphasized a passive posture for content consumption, but he deliberately did not do that this time. By standing and walking around, it hinted at a new dynamic phase of the iPad; one where the iPad is not only a deliverer of content, but a tool for active creation of compelling content.

I have learned from watching Jobs' presentations over the years that everything he does on stage is choreographed and has significance.

I believe that this will be the start of a strong emphasis by Apple to make the iPad a serious alternative to low cost laptops. You might say that this thinking is a bit of a stretch, but consider this: Last week Gartner stated that the iPad and tablets are having a negative impact on the sales of PC's and now predict that PC growth will be down from earlier predictions of 15.9% to around 10.5%. My Taiwanese ODM contacts say it will be even worse. They are expecting PC growth to be no more then 5% to 7%. And in a WSJ poll last week that asked if people would buy a tablet versus laptop in the future, 49.2% said they would versus 52.8 % that said they would not. If I was a laptop vendor, I would be extremely concerned.

This was a very well orchestrated event to start the new positioning of the iPad as a serious content creation tool, and when Jobs and team marry it to their cloud strategy, they will start to re-define what personal computing is all about, again. I believe that at its developer's conference later this spring, Apple will put a big emphasis on creating productivity apps and use this event to really push the iPad into a role that most laptops have played in the past.

Interestingly, if you include Apple's iPad and its overall laptop sales for the last year, Apple is now the number two WW vendor in portable computers behind HP. I would not be surprised if its long-term goal is to be #1, by riding the iPad into laptop territory to do it. Given the fact that the traditional PCs vendors are late to the tablet market, with Microsoft now saying it won't even have its version of Windows for tablets out until late 2012, all of the laptop vendors could be in for some rough times until they can catch up with Apple (if that is even possible).

If the Android, Palm or RIM crowd wants a piece of this pie, they are going to need to move quickly to get developers to create productivity apps as well as consumption apps if they even want a chance to compete with Apple.

Now, I want to be clear here that laptops are not going away. However, it does seem that these new tablets are going to challenge laptops in new ways and could threaten their position in a lot of business and consumer settings in the future. And if Apple has its way, it intends to be the lead dog this time around.

Tim Bajarin is one of the leading analysts working in the technology industry today. He is president of Creative Strategies (www.creativestrategies.com), a research company that produces strategy research reports for 50 to 60 companies annuallya roster that includes semiconductor and PC companies, as well as those in telecommunications, consumer electronics, and media. Customers have included AMD, Apple, Dell, HP, Intel, and Microsoft, among many others. You can e-mail him directly attim@creativestrategies.com.

Tim Bajarin is recognized as one of the leading industry consultants, analysts, and futurists covering the field of personal computers and consumer technology. Mr. Bajarin has been with Creative Strategies since 1981 and has served as a consultant to most of the leading hardware and software vendors in the industry including IBM, Apple, Xerox, Compaq, Dell, AT&T, Microsoft, Polaroid, Lotus, Epson, Toshiba, and numerous others. Mr. Bajarin is known as a concise, futuristic analyst, credited with predicting the desktop publishing revolution three years before it...
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